According to the Patient View survey, as reported by Forbes.com, the
leading cause of discontent with the pharmaceutical industry is, “a
lack of fair pricing policies leading to unseemly profits.” The
survey found industry also received a ‘poor’ rating on “Acting with
integrity.”

“Pharma should hear the message loud and clear; its policy of gouging
patients over their health is backfiring. The fact that a company like
Gilead Sciences, a company whose business model is to gouge government
programs and people with HIV/AIDS in order to maximize profits, is the
best pharma has to offer clearly shows far this industry has fallen,”
said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Stribild,
Gilead’s four-in-one combination pill that was approved by the Food and
Drug Administration in September of last year, is the most expensive
AIDS first line treatment on the market today at $28,500 per patient,
per year, which was 35% higher than the price of their best-selling
treatment at that time and is more than most HIV/AIDS patients earn
annually.

Already this year, on January 1, Gilead raised the prices of four key
AIDS medications by an average of 6%, including the price of Atripla,
its best-selling three-in-one combination treatment, the price of which
was increased by 6.9% to a Whole Acquisition Cost (WAC) of $1,878.23 per
patient, per month. The other three HIV/AIDS medications that saw price
hikes are Complera,
which was raised by 5.8% to a WAC of $1,936.53; Emtriva,
by 5.5% to a WAC of $478.45; and Viread,
by 6% to a WAC of $771.39.